I have absolutely no idea at all what my ancestors were doing in 1782.  I’m not sure that I care.  In fact, perhaps it’s better that I don’t know.

But Jack and Stephen Teeling can tell you what Walter Teeling was doing.  He was a distiller; one of thirty or so in The Liberties, then a vibrant part of Dublin and in the late eighteenth century arguably the distilling capital of the world (as it remained for many years afterward).

How wonderful then that his descendants have been able to establish their distillery within a few yards of where their...

Hunter Laing & Co. has announced plans to build Islay’s first new distillery in the past ten years at Ardnahoe, near Port Askaig. The  £8m project will be carried out in two phases. First, the construction of the distillery, warehousing, and visitor center to include a café, tasting room, and shop. The second phase will encompass expansion of the distilling operations and additional warehousing. Pending approval, construction is planned to begin in maj of this year. Their stills are projected to be distilling an initial batch of Maltwhisky by the end of 2017.

Hunter Laing & Co., a family operation, has...

At Café ArtScience in Cambridge, Massachusetts, this is what happens when you order the Mind Over Matter cocktail: The bartender sets a rocks glass in front of you; it appears to be filled with smoke. You remove the cork coaster that sits on top of the glass like a lid. You quickly inhale the vapor that escapes. You get a heavyweight wallop of orange and spice, a beeline up your nose, straight to the olfactory bulb of your gray matter.

It’s Compass Box Orangerie, a whisky infusion, in 3D. You take a sip and you find yourself kinda disoriented. There’s...

DISTILLER OF THE YEAR – MGP Ingredients

Ten years ago, very few people knew that there was a big whiskey distillery in the little Ohio river town of Lawrenceburg, Indiana; if you talked about it, people often assumed you meant the Four Roses or Wild Turkey distilleries in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. Those of us who did know mostly just knew that there was supposed to be some truly good whiskey being made up there…but it was being used to make Seagram’s 7. And we despaired, thinking we’d never see the straight stuff.

Ten years later, after some exceptional releases of Lawrenceburg-sourced...

Dennis Malcolm

There are many people in the Scotch whisky industry who are closely associated with a distillery, but none have the links which tie Dennis Malcolm to his beloved Glen Grant. The man who is now its master distiller was born-on site in 1946. His career path was fairly obvious. After all, his grandfather had worked for Major Grant, his father was a stillman. No surprise then that in april 1961, the 15 year old Dennis turned up for work as an apprentice cooper.

His rise up the whisky ladder was rapid: brewer at 24, assistant manager by the...

Dalmore 21 year old, 42%, $530

Dalmore first introduced a 21 year old expression back in the days of American Brands’ ownership during the 1990s. That variant contained around one-third whisky matured in sherry casks and the rest aged in bourbon wood. Ultimately, it was dropped from the lineup, leaving the 18 year old as the standard bearer at the upper end of the regular age range, along with an annual 3,000-bottle limited release of 25 year old.

Owners Whyte & Mackay Ltd. felt that there was room for another product in the upper age sphere, and in 2015 a...

Springbank Sherry Wood 17 year old, 52.3%, $130

We are all keen to laud start-up whisky-making ventures, and buzz phrases like “hand-crafted” and “artisanal” are bandied about with gay abandon. But we tend to forget that in the distilling outpost of Campbeltown, the Springbank distillery has been operating on a hand-crafted, artisanal basis for the best part of two centuries.

Springbank malts all its own barley requirements in-house on a traditional malting floor, it mashes in a cast iron open mash tun, and the wash still is both directly-fired and internally steam-heated. Finally, the mature spirit is bottled on-site.

When...

Ardbeg Supernova 2015 Release, 54.3%, $160

And so it ends, as it should, with a blast-off into some peaty galaxy far far away. Supernova was always designed to be Ardbeg’s peatiest expression, made from a selection of the smokiest casks in its warehouses. That in itself poses a challenge for any whisky maker. Producing a heavily peated whisky is relatively easy: you light a big fire and let it smolder for a long time. (Yes, I know there’s more to it than that, but go with me on this, okay?) Making a balanced heavily-peated whisky is considerably more difficult, because...

Tamdhu Batch Strength, 58.8%, $88

Tamdhu was always one of the quiet ones. You know, the distilleries who were happy to sit in the background, adding their qualities to blends, unknown by the vast majority of whisky drinkers. Since Ian Macleod bought the distillery from Edrington, however, there has been a slow emergence into the bright lights of the world of brands. The end of Edrington’s stewardship had seen the exclusive use of sherry casks, a policy its new owners have continued and benefited from. It makes sense. A great, balanced, sherried whisky is one of life’s pleasures. This is...

Blue Hanger 11 ^th Limited Release, 45.6%, £89

Blends spun off in different directions this year. Johnnie Walker Select Cask Rye Cask Finish and Dewar’s Scratched Cask aimed to shift their flavor profile toward an American whiskey style. That Boutique-y Whisky Company launched highly accomplished blends in release sizes no larger than a single cask bottling. Douglas Laing completed their Remarkable Regional Malts range of blended malts, crowned by a special cask strength version of Scallywag. A strong contender for this award was the glorious blended grain whisky Hedonism Quindecimus from Compass Box. Variety and innovation marked this out as...

Spirit of Hven Sankt Claus, 53.2%, 975 SEK

The Spirit of Hven distillery was founded in 2008 by Henric Molin on the attractive Swedish island of Hven in the strait of Öresund. The awe-inspiring structure of the Öresund bridge spans the same body of water further south, joining Copenhagen, Denmark to Malmö, Sweden. You cannot help but be swept up by Henric Molin’s infectious enthusiasm when he talks about his distillery. With a strong scientific background in chemistry, he maximizes flavor in his whiskies during production by calibrating the mashing temperatures, mixing yeast varieties, insisting on long fermentation times, and...

Hibiki Japanese Harmony, 43%, $65

That there is an issue with available volumes of Japanese whisky is not exactly news. Indeed, there’s a whole feature about it in this issue. One of the solutions to this has been the creation of new no age statement (NAS) whiskies, of which this is one; though to be honest, the idea of a NAS blend is hardly news. The way in which Suntory’s chief blender Shinji Fukuyo has approached this is, however. In fact, you could argue that not having a minimum age to work with has opened up a new range of...

Crown Royal 75 ^th Anniversary Blend, 40%, $75

King George and Queen Elizabeth loved their whisky. In 1939, a special one was created to celebrate their state visit to Canada. Ten cases of this regal dram, suitably named Crown Royal, were included in their provisions, to quench their royal thirsts as they crossed this enormous country by train. Canadians, thrilled with the royal celebrity visit, wanted to taste this nectar for themselves, and word quickly spread when Canadian military bases managed to add it to their supply shelves later that year. Soon, American whisky lovers wanted it too.

A blend...

Midleton Dair Ghaelach: Grinsell’s Wood, 58.3%, $270

This category was particularly competitive given the quality of new whiskeys emanating from Ireland this year. Three stood out, but ultimately Midleton Dair Ghaelach was chosen as the outright winner (though kudos to Redbreast Mano a Lámh and that brilliant pick by the Exclusive Malts from 2002).

This wonderful whiskey was the brainchild of Kevin O’Gorman, master of maturation at Midleton, and Billy Leighton, the master blender. Their vision was to re-introduce Irish oak maturation, a practice largely abandoned in the 19 ^th century. Over the past six to seven years, they have...

John E. Fitzgerald Very Special Reserve 20 year old, 45%, $300/375ml

When Heaven Hill purchased the Bernheim distillery (and the Old Fitzgerald bourbon brand) in 1999, the deal included stocks of wheated bourbon produced at the original home of Old Fitzgerald, the now legendary (and silent) Stitzel-Weller distillery. Most of those stocks were dumped and bottled as one of the Old Fitzgerald expressions in subsequent years. However, twelve barrels were transferred from Stitzel-Weller to one of the Heaven Hill warehouses in Bardstown, where they remained until two years ago.

This whiskey is 20 years old. Twenty years is a long...

Dad’s Hat Pennsylvania Rye, 45%, $39

I wasn’t that impressed with Mountain Laurel Spirits’ Dad’s Hat rye at first. Like other craft distillers, they had quite a learning curve to overcome. The first few bottlings I tasted were muddled, just not focused on what they wanted to be, and it was likely that the makers hadn’t decided what they wanted it to be yet.

When I first tasted this new bottling at the distillery, back in augusti, I could see that the whiskey had evolved. Although they have a small amount of straight whiskey aged in 53-gallon barrels, the main...

The 22 ^nd Annual Whisky Advocate Awards will be announced here  beginning this Friday, december 4 ^th . As the awards are announced, they will also be posted to the Whisky Advocate Facebook page and the Whisky Advocate Twitter feed ( @whiskyadvocate ).

The Whisky Advocate Awards exist to recognize excellence in the world of whisky. Now in its 22 ^nd year, the program is about the world’s greatest whiskies and distilleries, and the individuals who make and promote them. As always, these awards are not simply assigned to the whiskies that get the highest ratings in our reviews. The winners...

Demand for Maker’s Mark continues to grow strongly, and the distillery has been trying to catch up with it. A second set of stills, a new artificial lake for secure water supply, new warehouses: it’s been busy outside of Loretto for the past ten years.

It’s not slowing down. Last week, spirit started flowing from a third set of stills at Maker’s. Like the previous expansion, this set is, as much as possible, identical to the originals, a mirror image. The three stills sit side-by-side-by-side to minimize any differences from siting.

Three sets of coppers and pipes; no mirrors used....

The Winter 2015 issue of  Whisky Advocate  will be on the newsstand early next month. The Buying Guide includes over 130 whiskies reviewed plus a selection of beer. Today we offer a sneak preview by revealing the top 10 whiskies reviewed in this issue.

#10 –  Ardbeg Supernova 2015 Release, 54.3%, $160

Apparently this is the final Supernova release and the Ardbeg team has ensured it goes out with all guns blazing. Although it seems calm initially—there’s a minty and sweet spicy element to the fore—the smoke begins to push through in the guise of creosote, then sootiness which, in...

My “In Praise of Table Bourbon” piece that ran in the current Value issue of Whisky Advocate got a fair amount of positive comment in social media and in letters to the magazine. That’s the good news; people get that bourbon is for drinking, for enjoying, for simple pleasure.

The better news is that when I wrote it, I left some of my other choices for table bourbon out of the piece, simply because there were so many good ones that the piece was starting to sound like a laundry list. But in the interests of spreading the gospel of table...